“Inconsistent Me” (A Poem – Week 2 of “52 Makeup”)

Last updated on: January 28, 2017 at 1:22 am By Tom Swiss

Two days ago, 70 degrees Today, snow and ice And you insist that I be consistent? Read more

Random Wednesday: The Woman in the Moon, The Awfulness of Jeff Sessions, and Mystic Plumbers

Last updated on: January 12, 2017 at 2:29 am By Tom Swiss

Rather than allowing some to only contemplate the infinite and others to only fix drains, the ideal is that we should all be mystic plumbers. Read more

Right Recollection: Beyond Mindfulness in the New Year

Last updated on: January 8, 2017 at 10:13 pm By Tom Swiss

Mindfulness is big these days. While that's not awful -- maybe a focused corporate raider will do less collateral damage -- the way in which mindfulness is being promoted does suggest there's something incomplete here. Read more

“This Present Moment Sucks” (A Song – Week 1 of “52 Makeup”)

Last updated on: January 28, 2017 at 1:23 am By Tom Swiss

And that sounded pretty good when you meditated But when you're blissing out, you never anticipated What it'd be like to be so down on your luck... This present moment sucks Read more

Random Wednesday: Maternal Homecoming, Productivity in the New Year, and Unraveling “Russian Hackers”

Last updated on: January 5, 2017 at 2:48 am By Tom Swiss

Everybody loves Russian hackers these days. Democrats get to blame them for Clinton's embarrassing loss the buffoonish Donald Trump. Republicans get to blame Obama for being weak on cyber defense. The deep state gets to play up Cold War-style fear of the Russkies in order to increase their power. Read more

Congratulations! You survived 2016

Last updated on: January 1, 2017 at 4:33 pm By Tom Swiss

So celebrate your good fortune. And may you have all the gods you need. Read more

Random Wednesday: Solstice Candles, Family Dinners, and 52 Weeks of Creativity

Last updated on: December 29, 2016 at 11:21 am By Tom Swiss

Welcome to the last Random Wednesday of the year. Farewell 2016, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Read more

The End of Experts or the End of Courtiers?

Last updated on: December 29, 2016 at 10:56 am By Tom Swiss

But in many instances what is being rejected is not actually expert opinion but the opinion of courtiers. To expand on Myers' metaphor, a courtier is one who possesses socially-recognized authority and peer-accepted knowledge, but that knowledge and authority is based on socio-political power structures rather than empirical reality. Read more

Falling Down, Getting Up

Last updated on: December 21, 2016 at 3:15 pm By Tom Swiss

Whether we've failed once or seven times or a thousand, the thing we need to do is the same: get back up. Come again. Don't despair. Read more

On Santa Claus and Pantheism

Last updated on: December 16, 2016 at 8:40 pm By Tom Swiss

Sure, there wasn't a magic guy with a flying sleigh, etcetera, but there was an aspect of the human experience, a generosity, that we could sensibly personify as the chubby fellow in red. Santa didn't live at North Pole, but in the human heart. Yes, Santa was our parents - humans incarnating a mythological role, each becoming for a moment here and there the avatar of that Christmas Spirit. Read more